Too Cold Outside for Angels to Fly
by Capitu Santiago
Summary: Arnold is wide awake in the middle of the jungle taking care of his friends while they sleep all by himself. Or is he? Just some Shortaki in The Jungle Movie! Craig said there would be a lot of romance so I thought about this scene and the tons of fanart I've seen about it. Hope you like it!


Arnold's plans did not involve spend a night in the woods. At least, not outside of a cabin with bed and blankets. And even so, there he was with Gerald, Helga, trees taller than the sky and the cold wind. All he wanted was something that could keep him warm.

At that moment, he felt jealous of Gerald, who wearing that thick hoodie. His best friend was sleeping like a baby and seemed to be quite comfortable. Regardless the fact that he was really tired, Arnold was going to stay awake. He had agreed to be the first to keep vigil, making sure that nothing bad happened to the others while they rested. The idea was to take turns during the night so everybody could get some sleep.

But the blond boy's intentions were different. His friends were into this awful place because of him and only him. Finding his parents had been his idea and, as much as he was full aware that the two of them had agreed to come along with him, he felt guilty for putting in them in such a dangerous situation. He wanted Gerald and Helga to get as much sleep as possible without having to bother with the threats of the jungle for at least one night.

He turned to Gerald again, just to make sure he was really asleep. The vision he had was definitely priceless. Gerald was lying on his back with arms wide open and drooling in his sleep. Arnold put a hand over his mouth to muffle the giggle. He wished he had a cell phone to take a picture of his best friend and, perhaps, threaten to show Phoebe if Gerald disturbed him someday.

When he thought about turning his head to look at Helga, Arnold received a grunt in response. He turned to where the sound came from just to see the girl in a fetal position holding her legs firmly with the hands. She was scowling so hard that someone could think she was awake. Was she?

"Can't sleep?" Arnold asked, hoping she'd answer. It was kind of selfish, but he didn't want to be the one awaken in that scary place. Yes, scary. The jungle might sound intriguing at day, however, at night, the only thing Arnold wanted was to get out of there as soon as he could.

Helga opened her eyes and sat down in a jump. The scowl didn't left her face when she looked directly at Arnold. "I don't know if you noticed, Football Head, but it's cold and moist in this extremely disgusting ground, so I'm not very cozy here!" She smiled sarcastically "And guess what?! It's harder to fall asleep when there's noise. Then, do me a favor and SHUT UP!"

Arnold's eyes widened with the sudden girl's explosion. She should be in a bad mood because of the tiredness. He couldn't blame her, he was too. Suddenly, something clicked: If he, whose shirt had short sleeves, was cold, Helga, wearing a tank top, should be colder. He felt so stupid not having noticed it before.

"Can I help?" Arnold asked, his green eyes shining. He was hoping that maybe she had the same idea as him to warm up.

"Being quiet can be a good start." She said, although she still sat straight.

Arnold rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Helga." Apparently, she hadn't. "You know, Helga, if you don't warm yourself, you may end up having a hypothermia in the middle of a jungle where neither I nor Gerald would know how to treat you. Not without any first aid kit, which we definitely don't have."

Helga arched her eyebrow. "What do you mean, Arnoldo?"

He sighed, but grinned soon after it. "I'm **saying** you need a source of heat."

"What source of heat?! We don't have bonfire or..." before she could complete the sentence, Arnold opened his arms like he was expecting a hug.

Helga crossed her arms. He had to be kidding her! After the epic failure that she could barely call a "confession", the girl had given up on him. This thought still made her heart ache worse than any wound. Helga had been trying to keep her distance, making sure she wasn't going to say anything stupid just to regret it later. Of course she still loved him! You can't change something that lasted years in a couple of days, but would be so much easier if he was physically away from her. Helga had only agreed to rescue his parents because she knew Arnold deserved that help more than anyone.

"Thanks, but no. I'd rather die of cold." Helga replied, getting up to rest on the tree that was next to her. Supporting her back on the trunk, she slowly slid down to the ground. As soon as she sat down, she turned her face away from Arnold.

Yes, she wanted distance. Arnold couldn't understand why she was so reluctant to get close. I mean, Helga had always been when she bullied him, but he already knew her feelings. So why hide? He didn't understood. Unfortunately, the fact that **she** didn't know how **he** felt about her, did not passed through his thoughts. To Arnold, his feelings were clear as daylight. Although they actually were not.

However, the boy was determined to not let her get away with it. He stood up calmly and the girl barely moved. He walked on his tiptoes, trying to not make any noise and, when he got in front of her, the boy crouched and began to lightly rub his hands in her arms, attempting to warm her up. When his hands came into contact with her skin, his heart stopped for a few seconds. She was freezing even then, her skin was smooth as the wind that invaded the clearing where they were. Helga turned to look at him in shock. Her eyes were wide and, for a moment, they remained motionless. Arnold was lost in those big blue diamonds that seemed to open more every minute. She was... so pretty. Sometimes he was embarrassed to admit it to himself, but he always found beauty in Helga. Gerald said Arnold was crazy the first time he created the courage to mention it to him.

Maybe he was.

Helga stood a while facing those deep green eyes that she wished to bathe in. His gaze seemed so full of... love? No, it couldn't be! But what if? She blinked a few times to make sure it wasn't a dream. Between a blink and another, Helga noticed that his eyes were half-lidded and he had a smirk in his face. Suddenly, as if reality had given her a punch in the face, she shook her head while trying to make a scowl.

"What are you doing?!" Helga shouted, trying to remove the boy's hands. His face fell, but he didn't remove his hands.

Arnold held her slightly stronger than before so she would stop moving. "I'm just warming you up. I told you it was cold and, frankly, you are trembling."

Her face softened a little, but she remained irritated. "Yeah, so?! What matters to you if I'm cold?"

He voice sounded more broken than angry. She was hurt. Helga turned her head over just enough to not look in his eyes anymore. Arnold took a deep breath, dropped his hands from her arms and slightly leaned his head to look at Helga's face again.

"Helga, please, I know you, uh, volunteered to help me, but I still feel guilty about everything I'm making all my colleagues go through. I just want you all to be fine and I would die if something bad happened to you. It's… not worth it. So, **please** , stay warm and go get some sleep, okay?"

Helga's eyes turned to his again. His expression showed legit concern. He was so wrong. It **was** worth it! With the amount of times that Arnold had helped others, he deserved that and more. Of course she was angry because of all the trouble they had got into halfway there, but she would never have taken the decision to not be together with him. She sighed.

"Okay." She moved aside and tapped the palm of her left hand on the ground.

Arnold looked at the place where she had tapped and back to her, arching an eyebrow, confused. Helga rolled her eyes.

"Could you be any denser?" Her tone, even though had some mockery in it, was sweet. "I want you to sit here, so I can rest in your chest, which is warmer than a trunk, I suppose."

Arnold giggled softly while crawling to the place that Helga had pointed out. He hardly had time to lean his back against the tree after sitting, because Helga soon snuggled in his chest. She only let her head lie on his chest though, as if the rest of her body was still against him.

The boy did not know exactly whether it was the shock or the contact with her, but his heart was racing, his palms sweaty and not even her heat made him stop twitching. Suddenly, the most intoxicating smell of that forest was the vanilla odor that emanated from her hair. It was getting incredibly hard to breath. The boy had been paralyzed since the moment her head touched his chest.

"Are you okay there, Football Head?" Helga giggled.

Damn, she giggled. Arnold almost never heard her giggles, so when he did, he melted. Even though she had her hair messed up between twigs and leafs, her white tank top full of dirt and her knees scratched... She looked like an angel. Except, that, well, she wasn't. And he kind of liked it. She could be strong, confident, intelligent, sarcastic and funny at the same time that she could show to be sweet, romantic, kind and generous. She was all in one person and there were a lot of times that these features of her personality conflicted each other. And that was fine. Helga's intensity was something that Arnold loved about her. Arnold loves Helga.

 _"I love you, Helga"_ he thought. This normally would have scared the hell out of him. _"How can I love someone who has tormented me for years? How can we work this 'relationship' out? How can even say the word love without fear? How?"_ For the first time, those questions weren't surrounding his head. Arnold wasn't afraid or even in doubt. Because he realized that love didn't have to make sense. Love just needed to be. And it was.

He made a decision. As soon as they came out of the jungle and rescued his parents, he would say that he loved her. Without any doubts and definitely, without fear. He wanted it to be something special because Helga deserved a big love confession. Not as the first one she did. Hurried, in the heat of the moment. It had to be something that he would make sure she remembered. He wanted to say to the word "love" to her, but not there. So he did something expecting her to get the message. Arnold put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer and making their bodies touch. He noticed that her breathing stopped for a few seconds. This action made Arnold hesitate for a few seconds, but the bold kid inside him was stubborn, so he soft peck in her forehead.

"Good night, Helga."

Helga finally breathed again, standing still for a few seconds. He could've sworn he heard her letting out a "oh!", but it was almost inaudible. After the shock, she put her arm around his waist, snuggling more on his chest.

"Good night, Arnold."

He didn't want to sleep. He couldn't sleep. However, Arnold didn't had time to think about stopping himself before being taken away by his dreams. This time, Helga was there with his parents. For some reason, this fact made him so happy he couldn't even begin to explain.

The next morning, when Gerald realized that Arnold had not woke him up, he stood up already thinking of ways to rail his best friend. But when he found the sleepy couple cuddling in each other's arms, Gerald changed his mind. The only thing he did was roll over his eyes and smirk.

"Well, look who is going to be the third wheel here."


End file.
